See the West Wind Move Like a Lover
by embroiderama
Summary: Cassie didn't know if it would last forever, if they would all end up living in the houses there on Crowhaven Road the way most of their parents and grandparents had, but at least everything wouldn't be changing at once.


They all agreed, without ever really talking about it, that none of them would go so far away from New Salem that they couldn't make it back for circles. Cassie didn't know if it would last forever, if they would all end up living in the houses there on Crowhaven Road the way most of their parents and grandparents had, but at least everything wouldn't be changing at once. Two-thirds of the circle had graduated in June, and the rest of them were going to be seniors in September; Cassie just wanted to hold onto Adam's hand and never let him go.

Adam started college at Salem State, but he came home every weekend. He was by Cassie's side leading every circle, and the silver cord between them pulsed brighter every time they used the power together. Having Adam's lips on hers, his hands on her skin, was like closing a circuit. After a circle, he would slide his hands up her thighs, slipping under the hem of the shift she wore for the rituals. Even on cold nights, a thrill of heat would race up her back, spiraling energy spinning low in her stomach, and they'd touch each other all over until the silver cord wrapped around them like they were a pair of poppet dolls bound up by Suzan.

Still, they only went so far, never going all the way. A quiet voice inside Cassie said the time wasn't right, and she believed in listening to that voice. Adam listened too, though she'd never doubted that he would. Some of the others made their assumptions, but Cassie had learned to ignore Faye's smirking looks, Suzan's wide-eyed grins, whatever stupid things the twins whispered to each other under their breath. Diane knew, and Lauren, and she thought that Nick did, too.

Senior year went by fast, and by February Cassie knew that she'd been accepted to Salem State, too. The Class of '95 at New Salem High saw the last of the kids from Crowhaven Road graduate, and if the new principal breathed a sigh of relief, Cassie couldn't much blame her. Things had been quiet since they'd destroyed Black John, destroyed the crystal skull, but Cassie had a feeling that the town's nervousness surrounding the Crowhaven Road families would take a long time to go away. They'd made some very loud noise there for a while, and the echoes of it were still shaking in the walls.

Beltane came a month before graduation, and Cassie wanted it to be special, powerful. They were all adults, her own eighteenth birthday had just passed, and it was time. She stood on the beach, trying to imagine not living on this patch of land for the next few years, and she heard the waves and the wind moving across the sand whisper to her that it was time. They held their circle as usual, and when everybody pulled out the beer and soda and started celebrating, Cassie took Adam's hand. He was shirtless, half-skyclad, open to the elements, and she led him past the remains of the candles still burning and melting wax into the sand. In the dark in the shadow of a sand dune she pulled off her panties and laid down, pulling him with her.

The moon moved through clouds above them, the light shining through Adam's red hair, turning it into a fire, their own private fire. Adam leaned down and kissed Cassie, pushing up her shift, and she reached down to his waist, unzipping his jeans and pushing them down around his narrow hips. She drew him down, spreading her knees to make room, and then he was inside her. Cassie gasped and closed her eyes, and the lines in her old spellbook came to life. The sword in the chalice, deep magic, and the silver cord flared hot, glowing gold now. The energy low in Cassie's stomach spun tighter and faster as Adam moved faster, pressed down against her. She scrabbled at the sand with her fingertips and bare toes, and then the energy imploded, shattered, spread all through her body. For a moment she was drowning in the darkness, no air, but it was beautiful, beautiful, and then Adam was on the sand beside her, shaking as hard as she was.

A week after graduation, Cassie woke in the middle of the night and sat up in bed, looking around her room. There was something she'd forgotten, she was sure of it, but she couldn't imagine what. She sat up for an hour, thinking through all the forms she'd had to send in for college, the financial aid papers she and her mom filled out together. There wasn't any more homework to do, not for months. Finally, she let it go, let herself fall back to sleep. In the morning, when she was sitting at the kitchen table eating her cereal, she figured it out--the moon had gone through its cycle, but she hadn't. Things had been so busy--final exams and graduation and parties--and she wanted to believe that it was just the stress and excitement throwing her off, but she couldn't quite manage it.

In her pajama shorts and top, she walked out of the house, leaving her breakfast on the table. A few feet away from the edge of the bluff, she sat down with her legs crossed under her and stared out at the ocean. She closed her eyes, and she could see the gold thread spooling out toward Adam, where he was probably still asleep a few houses down. And there was another thread, shorter but strong and bright with power, and it was inside her, curled gently like the spiral of a seashell. She was going to have Adam's baby, they were going to start a new generation on Crowhaven Road, this one untouched by the dark magic of Black John. She cried for grief at the plans that would have to be changed, and then she cried for joy at the new life pulsing inside her. When the morning breeze dried her eyes, she went inside to to tell her mom.

Everybody cried a little, at first. Cassie's mom, Adam, Diana--they all hugged Cassie and cried, but then the crying was done. Crowhaven Road women had been making babies young for generations, and the crones didn't do more than lift their gray eyebrows before setting about making preparations. Cassie made phone calls, deferring her college admission for a year, and when Adam knelt at her side with a ring of gold inlaid with rose quartz she kissed him and then shook her head. She needed Adam, needed his love, but she didn't need his ring on her finger or his name attached to hers to bring their baby into the world.

Cassie dreamed at night of a little girl with strawberry blonde hair, and she knew that the one thing she did need was a house to live in with her daughter and her mother. The house at number twelve was still a half-burned wreck, but she couldn't bring a child into the space they borrowed from other Crowhaven Road families, no matter how freely it was given. She walked down to number twelve and started peeling charred wallpaper from the wall of the kitchen. By the end of the day, most of the Club was there helping her--Deborah pulling up damaged planks from the wooden floor, Nick and Melanie working together to fix the broken bricks of the fireplace, Lauren pulling weeds in the garden.

In the end, everybody helped in the time they could spare around summer jobs. Adam turned Cassie's grandmother's old sewing room into a nursery, and he didn't let Cassie see it until it was done. The room was painted a pale seafoam green with a border of seashells, and all the sturdy old baby furniture had been sanded smooth and refinished. It was late August, almost time for everybody heading off to college to leave, and Cassie could cup her hand around the tiny swell of her daughter in her belly. She could barely remember how devastated she'd been to leave California and come to live in this house. Now, knowing in her heart that it was her home, her family's home, she thought that anywhere else she went to live would always be temporary, always be the place she was staying until she could get back to number twelve Crowhaven Road.

As the sunrise stretched toward the beach on the morning of Imbolc, Cassie went into labor in her bedroom at number twelve. The women of Crowhaven Road surrounded her--Cassie's mother and Diana holding her hands, Melanie setting out stones to welcome good energies into the room, Lauren easing Cassie with her herbs. Suzan brought water and soft fruit to keep Cassie's energy up; Faye and Deborah guarded the door. And behind her, always behind her, was Adam. He held her up, held her in the circle of his arms, and as their daughter came screaming out into the world he whispered in her ear that she was done, that they were okay.

Three days later, she bundled her baby up against the bitter cold morning and walked down to the beach with Adam. The rest of the circle was waiting there with a fire burning on the sand, and under the sun, in the presence of the elements they welcomed her, gifted her with the name Hannah.

Just over five years later, on a warm day in May, Hannah walked down the beach with her pale red hair glowing in the sunshine as she threw flower petals out onto the sand until she reached her father's side. Cassie followed, watching her little girl's sure steps on the beach that had been her playground since she took her first wobbly steps. She walked up beside Adam and stood in front of Diana--Diana, who had offered to marry them, to join them together forever now that Cassie was ready. She and Adam exchanged rings, and then they joined hands and Diana wrapped a langth of fine white fabric around their wrists.

Cassie felt energy pulsing up from the beach under her; she felt a light breeze move around them, teasing at the ends of her hair. Diana pronounced them married, and Adam's hand was warm on her cheek, his lips soft against hers. When they pulled apart, their friends and families murmuring approval around them, she ducked down and picked up Hannah. Adam's arm curved around the two of them, and for a moment she forgot about everybody around them, forgot about the party that was about to start.

They were where they needed to be; they were together.


End file.
